YÖK President Özvar: “We aim to complete the quality processes of our institutions and elevate their academic standards among the best in the world.”

The President of the Higher Education Council (YÖK), Prof. Dr. Erol Özvar, stated, “We aim to complete the quality processes of our institutions and raise their academic standards among the best in the world.”
Erciyes University (ERÜ) officially started the 2024-2025 Academic Year with a ceremony. Speaking at the event, YÖK President Prof. Dr. Erol Özvar emphasized the significant place of Erciyes University in the higher education system, stating, “Our Erciyes University has contributed to the formation of a higher education tradition not only in Kayseri but also in cities like Yozgat and Nevşehir, facilitating the establishment of new universities in these areas. In this respect, our university is one of our esteemed higher education institutions that has fulfilled an important mission in our country. With nearly half a century of experience, Erciyes University has become one of the rooted higher education institutions in our country and Anatolia, holding an exceptionally distinguished position in our higher education system due to its historical heritage. This position also places a significant responsibility on the shoulders of Erciyes University. Naturally, we all expect our university to meet the highest quality standards in all its activities. Today, Erciyes University has a very large capacity with nearly 49,000 students studying in numerous academic units, over 2,200 faculty members, and about 4,600 administrative personnel. It is extremely important to utilize this great capacity in the best way possible, providing significant added value to our country, our region, and our city. I believe Erciyes University has the capability and experience to achieve this.”
Özvar pointed out that Erciyes University has made significant progress in many areas, saying, “Our Erciyes University is among the 23 universities included in the Research Universities Program. In this context, all performance data related to our university is closely monitored. A short while ago, our Council shared the ‘2024 University Monitoring and Evaluation General Report’ with the public. This report, prepared with great care, is extremely significant in terms of being a kind of report card for our higher education system. I have reviewed this report carefully once again before this program to examine the data of Erciyes University. I am pleased to see that Erciyes University ranks highly in many categories such as the number of doctoral graduates, the number of national and international projects involving students and academics, the number of patents, utility models, and designs applied for and accepted, the number of students receiving TÜBİTAK and YÖK scholarships, social responsibility projects, and the amount of donations made to the university. Additionally, Erciyes University has ranked first in our country in the Climate Action Index announced by Times Higher Education (THE) and holds the 100th position in the world ranking. This is an exceptionally important achievement. Similarly, our university has also ranked high in the Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Living Indexes announced by THE. Furthermore, in the GreenMetric Green and Eco-Friendly University Index, Erciyes University has achieved significant success by ranking third among all our universities. These data are reassuring as they indicate that our university has made considerable progress in sustainability and environmental sensitivity, which we have been emphasizing recently,” he expressed.
Özvar continued by stating that they aim to complete the quality processes of institutions and raise their academic standards among the best in the world, saying: “It is extremely important for Erciyes University to carefully consider its performance in all these areas, identify areas open to improvement, and work diligently on them. This way, it will be possible to achieve much better results in the upcoming period. I believe Erciyes University has the potential to rank higher in international university rankings. I am confident that we will achieve better results in this regard in the coming years. The essence of our first strategic goal, which we address under the heading of accessibility and inclusiveness in higher education, is to ensure equitable access to quality higher education for all segments of our country. Currently, we provide higher education opportunities for new students with over 1 million university quotas each year. In addition, we allocate extra quotas outside the general quotas for the relatives of martyrs and veterans, earthquake victims, and women over the age of 34, and implement significant measures to facilitate university life for our disabled citizens. Our second strategic goal is related to research and innovation in higher education. Here, our aim is to make Turkey a center of research and innovation with global impact. Our programs focused on specialization and mission differentiation, including the Research Universities Program, and the support programs we implement serve this purpose. A third strategic goal we have set for our higher education system is to ensure quality, productivity, and excellence in higher education. In this regard, we aim to complete the quality processes of our higher education institutions and elevate their academic standards and outputs among the best in the world. Alongside institutional accreditations, we strongly encourage and support program accreditations at our universities. As a manifestation of this understanding, we have introduced the requirement for universities applying to open doctoral programs to have accredited programs. Similarly, our Council is working on linking the establishment of units such as faculties, vocational schools, institutes, research, and application centers to accreditation requirements in the upcoming period. The fourth strategic goal we have set for our higher education system is internationalization. Making Turkish higher education one of the focal points of academic and educational mobility and interaction on a regional and global scale forms the basis of our internationalization goal. Today, approximately 340,000 international students are studying in our country. In this regard, Turkey ranks among the top 10 countries in the world in terms of having the most international students. We aim to increase this number to 500,000 within the scope of our strategic goals for 2024-2028. At this point, I believe Kayseri and Erciyes University have a significant potential. One of the important steps we have recently taken in the context of internationalization has been to expand university collaborations to include cross-border partnerships. This year, the Turkey-Azerbaijan University has started education. We attach great importance to this project, which is based on Turkish universities opening programs abroad in fields in which they are strong. Also, we recently made an agreement with Kazakhstan for Gazi University’s program to be opened at the Pedagogy University. During our visit to Egypt this week, we reached an agreement to establish a Turkey-Egypt University. We are working on similar projects with many countries. We hope to see concrete results of these efforts together very soon. All these efforts are valuable initiatives that will significantly enhance the visibility and impact of our higher education system internationally.”
Özvar further stated, “We aim to reduce carbon footprints with the Climate-Friendly Campus Project.” He mentioned that they have opened 73 artificial intelligence and digital-based programs at 20 universities, stating, “The fifth area regarding our higher education has been determined as ‘sensitivity to employment and lifelong learning.’ The essence of our goal here is to make higher education programs employment-sensitive and continually interact with the industry; to develop and promote a culture of continuous learning and adaptation. While gradually phasing out programs that have a decreasing relation to employment in higher education, we are focusing on programs that will train the qualified human resources needed in all areas of our country. As a reflection of this understanding, we have opened 73 new programs in artificial intelligence and digital-based fields at 20 of our universities this year. We are also expanding our OSB-MYO program to respond to the needs of the sectors and provide employment-oriented education. Our efforts in this regard will continue to increase in the coming period. Among the areas we have focused on the most recently as the Higher Education Council are ‘green and digital skills.’ We have implemented the Sustainable and Climate-Friendly Campus Project to raise a conscious youth regarding green skills and to support our universities in having greener, more efficient, and more socially responsible campuses. Initially, 11 university campuses have participated in this project. With this project, we aim to increase energy efficiency on our campuses, conserve water resources, optimize waste management, and reduce carbon footprints. To achieve these goals, we emphasize the effective use of resources, reducing costs, and diversifying renewable energy sources. In conclusion, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Fatih Altun, the Rector of Erciyes University, for his kind invitation and hospitality, and I wish a fruitful 2024-2025 Academic Year to our students, academics, and administrative staff,” he stated.
ERÜ Rector Prof. Dr. Fatih Altun said, “We come together here to consult on many different projects and ideas. I believe this also contributes significantly to the development of our country and the advancement of our university. Our mayors are always there for us whenever we need anything. This continues to increase the brand value of the university day by day. I sincerely thank you for your presence at our university’s opening program.”
Kayseri Metropolitan Mayor Memduh Büyükkılıç stated, “Everyone is truly doing more than their part to serve this city and competing to do so. In this sense, we are grateful to continue to be a center of attraction. In this solidarity, we say come and see our Kayseri. I greet each of you with love and respect.”
Kayseri Governor Gökmen Çiçek also mentioned, “Today, we saw during the visit of our YÖK President that he has a very different love and interest for Erciyes University and Kayseri. He knew the things we would tell him long before we did. I thank our YÖK President very much. Kayseri loves you, Mr. President. With these feelings, I extend my respects to everyone and thank you.”
The program ended with the presentation of plaques. The event was attended by Kayseri Governor Gökmen Çiçek, AK Party Kayseri MP Murat Cahid Cıngı, YÖK President Prof. Dr. Erol Özvar, Kayseri Metropolitan Mayor Memduh Büyükkılıç, ERÜ Rector Prof. Dr. Fatih Altun, protocol members, academics, and students.